Blake Masters warned to raise more money against Mark Kelly

Republican leaders and megadonors are warning Arizona GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters to improve his fundraising, or else be doomed in his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in November’s election, according to people familiar with the matter.

Masters has received urgent private calls in recent weeks from GOP leaders such as Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, these people explained. The NRSC is the official campaign arm for Senate Republicans, and has spent over $6 million taking on Masters’ rival Kelly, according to data from the nonpartisan OpenSecrets.

Kelly’s seat has long been considered a potential pickup opportunity for Republicans, as forecaster Cook Political Report labels the race a toss up. Recent polling, however, suggests that Masters is falling behind. A Fox News poll taken in August shows Kelly leading Masters by 8 points. An Arizona Republican pollster told NBC News that his own surveys showed Masters trailing Kelly by 10 points.

Longtime GOP megadonors, who want to help Masters overtake Kelly but have not heard from him since he won the party’s primary, have inundated the Republican candidate with calls, these people explained.

A person familiar with one of the recent calls to Masters said a veteran GOP financier “read him the riot act” and told him, in part, that he must start raising money from more wealthy Republican donors and stop relying on billionaire tech executive Peter Thiel, his longtime colleague and friend, to help him like he did in the primary. These people declined to be named in order to speak freely about private conversations.

Kelly has massively outraised Masters, who won a Republican primary in Arizona this month. The incumbent’s campaign has brought in more than $54 million during the 2022 election cycle, compared with just over $4 million for Masters’ campaign, according to the latest Federal Election Commission data.

Thiel contributed $15 million during the primary to a pro-Masters super PAC, Saving Arizona. He donated $1.5 million to the committee as recently as July. Masters was the chief operating officer at Thiel Capital, an investment firm founded by Thiel.

The calls to Masters come as even some Republican leaders seem to be questioning their Senate candidates. When asked about his predictions for the midterms, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said “candidate quality” has a lot to do with winning Senate elections. He added that he believes there will be an “extremely close Senate” after November’s elections.

The Senate is currently split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans.

In a statement to CNBC, NRSC spokesman Chris Hartline did not deny that Scott called Masters to urge him to improve his fundraising operation.

“Mark Kelly votes with Joe Biden almost 100% of the time. While he claims to be a moderate, he’s supported reckless Washington spending and done nothing to address the border crisis that’s raging in Arizona. The NRSC will…